Network communications equipment such as routers and switches are interconnected via optical or electrical cabling which carries the signals which are processed by the equipment. Typically, the equipment is situated in an environmentally hardened enclosure, or a wiring closet, central office or point-of-presence office which is environmentally controlled. Because the cost of space in these environments is high, the equipment is commonly organized in the most compact manner that is practical. As a result, there is often a confusing collection of cabling run through the environment to interconnect the equipment within the environment to both other equipment within the environment and equipment outside of the environment. This presents a problem to field technicians responsible for installing and maintaining the equipment because it is important that specific cables are connected to specific places on the equipment.
It is known to attach identifying tags to cabling. In particular, a physical tag with a written label is attached to a cable to identify the cable. This may be as simple as attaching a paper tag with a tie-wrap or writing on a piece of tape that is adhered to the cable. However, physical tags may become separated from cabling and the labels may be rendered illegible. Further, locating a particular tag amongst a great many tagged cables in a crowded environment may be difficult.
It is also known to use unique connectors. The connectors may be affixed to multiple cables and have a geometry that allows insertion into only one type of device in one particular way. However, the connectors must be connected to the cabling in the proper way. Further, designing and manufacturing unique connectors is relatively costly because each can only serve a particular function and production runs tend to be in relatively small numbers.
Radio Frequency Identification (“RF-ID”) technology, although nascent, is known for improving supply chain efficiency by facilitating tracking of goods. For example, RF-ID may displace the bar codes currently used to identify products. An RF-ID tag is a small, inexpensive circuitry chip which stores data such as a product's expiration date and Electronic Product Code (“EPC”). The circuitry is responsive to a particular RF signal transmitted by a reader to generate a corresponding signal including the stored data. The circuitry may be passive or active. Passive circuitry employs the energy of the reader excitation signal to generate the corresponding signal. Active circuitry employs an internal power source such as a battery to generate the corresponding signal. The range of the corresponding signal is dependent on various factors, but may be effective up to ten meters.